• News

• All

Mar 29, 2017 By Christopher Roberts Saint Etienne

Beloved British indie-pop trio Saint Etienne are releasing a new album, Home Counties, on June 2 via Heavenly. Previously they had shared the album’s first single, “Heather.” Now the band have announced their first U.S. tour dates in five years. The September and October dates are below, followed by “Heather” again.

Shawn Lee produced Home Counties, with support from Augustus (Kero Kero Bonito), Carwyn Ellis (Colorama, Edwyn Collins), Robin Bennett (The Dreaming Spires), Richard X (Girls On Top / Black Melody), and Gerard Johnson (Denim, Yes). It was recorded in central London, with the band members commuting to the studio every day for six weeks.

A previous press release describes the concept of the album, which centers on where the band grew up and the area’s reputation and relationship with the rest of England: “The Home Counties are an embarrassing place to come from. The name itself suggests that somehow the rest of Britain isn’t ‘home,’ not even London. It’s where John Major’s vision of cricket and warm beer was meant to exist, but it’s not really like that at all, and it never has been. The Home Counties are a land of bootleg DVDs at car boot sales, Waitrose bags for life, parking disputes, bored teenagers in semis inventing ghost stories, squaddies causing trouble at all-you-can-eat buffets, train drivers in eyeliner and suburban rebels, a place where Tony Hancock and Spike Milligan drew inspiration. Saint Etienne grew up in the Home Counties. Here are sixteen new songs they have written about a day in the life of this doughnut of shires that ring the capital, punctuated by bursts of BBC radio to remind you what time it is, and all connected by train journeys - main lines, branch lines, commutes, escapes.”

The press release adds that the song “Whyteleafe” “imagines what might have happened if David Bowie had remained David Jones of Bromley, stuck with a desk job.”

Saint Etienne Tour Dates:

U.K. Tour Dates:

May 26 - Hebden Bridge, UK -Trades Club
May 27 - Oxford, UK - Common People Festival
May 31 - Barcelona, SPA - Primavera
June 2 - London, UK - Royal Festival Hall
June 3 - Cardiff, UK - Tramshed
June 4 - Birmingham, UK - Town Hall
June 6 - Bexhill, UK - De La Warr Pavillion
June 8 - Newcastle, UK - Sage
June 9 - Edinburgh - UK - Queens Hall
June 10 - Sheffield, UK - City Hall
June 11 - Manchester, UK - RNMC Concert Hall
August 20 - Glanusk Park - Green Man Festival

U.S. Tour Dates:

Sep 24 - Boston, MA - Somerville Once Ballroom
Sep 25 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
Sep 26 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
Sep 27 - Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall
Sep 29 - Chicago, IL - Park West
Oct 2 - Seattle, WA - Neptune
Oct 4 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
Oct 5 - Pomona, CA - Glass House
Oct 6 - Los Angeles, CA - The Fonda Theatre

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.